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9 yrs ago
dissertation done. can actually post again. yay.
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wordcount: 1330 (+3) (+35)
Midna: level 8 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(81/80)
Location: Sandswept Sky - Train
Warp Charges: 1


Inside and out of the Convent of Our Lady of the Charred Visage the wasp’s nest’s rage was cooling from a frantic inferno to a simmering range. Neither the intruders nor the captives could be found, no matter how far the sisters scouted out into the snow. It was as if they had jumped off of the roof and then simply vanished into thin air.

Which was, of course, exactly what had happened, as Midna had swiftly whisked everyone back to the virgin victory via her twilight warp. However, the mountain still held unfinished business for her, and this time she was not going to put the others in danger for the rest of her little side quest. So once she (and her minions) were healed up, rested and recovered, it was back into the fray for her while the others headed off after the train riders.

First thing’s first, she teleported back to the warpstone they’d set up a closet inside the convent, adding another few more tallies to the kill list in the process when she appeared right beside some suspicious sisters prodding the out of place stone.

She then stashed that rock in the twilight realm, jumped back to the other warp stone atop the mountain before anyone responded to the sound of violence, stored it too, and finally used her own warp system to return to the entrance of the convent to start the next leg of her descent.

Slipping from shadow to shadow the princess made quick work of avoiding the religious weirdos spreading out across their section of the mountain, then slipped down through the ice cold caverns and equally chilly catacombs, the darkness within the mountain giving her endless ways to just shadow skip past any and all threats.

Knowing the way back certainly helped a whole bunch as well, and soon enough she was back in High Hrothgar, home of the greybeards and the highest (sane) bastion of civilization on the mountain where the heroes had taken a break during their climb.

Midna did the same here, and traded a few words with their leader Arngeir over a light lunch regarding both the true nature of the Convent, the elder promising they would warn anyone else climbing the mountain of this danger so that the fate of the faithful would not be repeated, and about the rest of their climb as well to which he listened with polite interest.

She also asked him about those that had turned back, and found that Sora, Mao and Minamoto had all passed through on their way down, and were presumably back at Tostarena Town by now, as long as they hadn’t run into trouble on the way.

With information traded the princess bade the greybeards farewell and headed down to where they had met the man entombed in the iron statue who’s request for oil had begun this whole side adventure. Midna wasn’t sure how to feel about him now that she knew all about the place the oil he desired came from, but his request had indirectly saved two lives, so she still felt she owed him his strange last wish.

Retracing the party’s steps, she found him, and found that when he had said ‘Now, let my numbed arm become another branch of this withered olive tree’ he had been quite literal, as his exposed arm had indeed become a tree branch while they had been away. His half exposed face, however, remained human and its eye opened in order to look down at at her when she approached, boots crunching on the snow.

A hoarse voice tried to speak, but no words could come, and all the entombed man could do was watch with anticipation and then relief as the princess brushed a hand over her palm and summoned the little thimble of oil from the twilight realm, its contents still piping hot despite the time passed.

She rose up into the air before him, holding up the thimble, only to hesitate before doing the deed. ”I…” she began to say, and then bit her tongue. This poor soul did not need to hear her disparaging his last wish, this she knew, and so instead she simply said ”Here. Be at peace” and looked away as she ‘blessed’ him with the scorching oil.

In a response there came a cry of pain and rapture, and then a the words

“I feel the boiling oil entering my frigid veins.
I can still answer the call…”

Then, nothing more. Midna tried to get his attention a few more times and then sighed. She turned. Began to drift away, and then turned again to look at him one last time, only for her eyes to go wide.

”What. Where?” she asked, seeing the statue suddenly empty. At first she thought he had simply turned to ash, but none was to be found inside the statue, nor was his spirit. Then she looked down and saw that there were footsteps in the snow, leading down the mountain.

She had no idea how he had moved so fast or so silently, or even escaped from the sealed statue, but she followed his steps nonetheless, his footprints becoming surrounded by more and more root like impressions till they entered a cave. Midna followed, and gasped as she came across a field of lumionse flowers within the cave, and then despair as she saw what had become of Gemino.

The man was a man no more, but instead had been consumed by wizened bark, branch and roots to such an extent that he had become a tree, one that knelt before a coffin surrounded by other figures who had turned into trees just like him.

”Was this the call? Why? Who even is this?” the princess asked the dead as she floated across the field of flowers to avoid stepping on them, as the man had somehow also avoided doing so, and examined the tomb upon which she found a name: ”Engracia?”

She had no context for any of this, least of all who this was. Was she to blame for Gemino’s state or if she had been a last respite for him before the curse took him. She had no idea.

In the end all she could say was ”At least this is a better place to die than that barren slope” while picking a few shining flowers and placing them on the tomb, an offering to Gemino as much as it was to this woman whom he had come to pay his respects to in his final moments, willingly or not.

Then, after a few moments of silence for the departed, she left, the princess rendered equal parts confused and sorrowful by the whole ordeal. Yet it wasn’t at an end quite yet. As she exited the cave and returned to the path she saw the statue he had been trapped in once again. Yet rather than remain as she had left it, it now sported a bloom of frozen flowers at its feet and, sitting in their midst, a bright red string, its luster contrasting greatly with the white snow. Upon its length sat a single frozen olive strung up like a rosary bead.

A strange and yet fitting parting gift from this misbegotten mountain.

With the string draped around her neck the Twilight Princess descended it at a breakneck pace atop her Wolf-Dran steed, blasting through the monster infested slopes, past the slumbering bear and through its autumn dream, alongside the racers of the Redstone City and finally back down to Tostarena Town where a happy reunion was had and a trio of allies returned to the fold.

Then, one last twilight gate opened in the vicinity of the mountain and the Princess finally left it behind, now with Sora, Mao and Minamoto in tow. It was well past time she and it parted ways in Midna’s opinion, and besides, they had a train to catch.




“Boring boring boring, it’s just rocks rocks rocks,” Jeon complained as he soared above a particularly barren part of the southern continent, having accidentally gone in just the entirely wrong direction when it came to cool places to see. Then, all of a sudden, he spotted something out of the ordinary. Sparkles, drifting on the wind.

“Ooo what is that” the god cooed and swept down after them and followed in their wake till they rained down on an unremarkable patch of land devoid of life. Till now.

The sparkles burst into bright flashes where they landed, and unveiled tall creatures with fair skin and pointed ears. As the god swooped in they began picking themselves up and looking around in a daze, only to startle as the god leapt from his glider and landed among them.

“Hello hello! Don’t be afraid my tall elvish friends, it's just me, your friendly neighborhood god, Jeon Du Termas!” the adventurer assured the beings, having assumed their species correctly, amused by how the towering beings shied away from his comparatively short form.

One (male, long flowing black hair down to his shoulders, a bit scrawny but tall even for his kind) found the courage to speak up and ask “G-god? You are a god?”

“Yup. immortality, impossibly good vision, spontaneous creation of whatever I want. The works.” Jeon elaborated, making a little shower of sparkles appear from his hand to show off. Then he realized that most of the elves couldn't see him and ordered the asker to “You, minion, pick me up and put me on your shoulders!”

“I... yes my god, right away” the bemused elf replied, and soon enough Jeon was riding piggyback on the shoulders of the tall elf, now nicely in view of the others as he held up a hand and shot a series of magical missiles into the sky like fireworks and declaring “Behold a god!”and revelling in the oohs and aahs he got in response.

“If.. if you are a god then.. Did you make us?” the one hesitantly asked once his little show was over “and.. All of this?”

“... sure!” Jeon lied, before taking another look at ‘all this’ and adjusting “Well not all this. This lame dead place was here when I got here. Not exactly a fun to explore let me tell you. Once you’ve seen one field of gray rocks you’ve seen them all to be honest. But don’t you worry, ol Jeon’s going to get you covered on that, because as your gracious creator I'll also be making this place way more fun!” he declared, before adding “Oh and also livable” almost as a second thought.

That whoever had made these tall folks had allowed them to come to life in the middle of nowhere with no food or shelter made Jeon consider his impulsive directions to claim to be their creator entirely justified. Never mind that he too had almost forgotten about their basic needs too.

“Now watch, as I bring this dead land to life before your very eyes!” he declared, before conjuring a single seed and tossing it over the heads of the elves to land in the dirt beyond their gathering. After a moment a single tree began to rapidly grow from the earth

There were gasps of amazement, and then an awkward silence as the single tree just kept getting bigger and bigger which, while impressive, didn't exactly constitute enough plantlife to live off of.

“I’m sorry but, ah, is that-” one began to say before Jeon held up a hand and said “Waiiiiiit for it”

The tree grew to maturity, bloomed and then sprouted seeds, which fell around it. Then those started growing, flowering, and seeding too, each sequence going faster and faster and faster, till hundreds of years of cycles of growth where occurring in the blink of an eye and then after an age and no time at all the elves were left standing in a clearing in the middle of a vast and positively ancient woods.

“And hey presto, that’s how you make a quintessential dark forest” the god declared, giving a little bow from atop his godly shoulder throne. The elves eyed the woods, which were quite dark and foreboding truth be told, and which echoed with the sounds of strange beasts, with a certain amount of apprehension.

When one of them asked what was in there Jeon shrugged his shoulders and replied “I have no idea!”

“But.. did you not make it? Do you not know all?”

“Nah, omniscience wasn’t part of the package, plus I also made myself forget what was in there so I could join in the fun of discovery with you!” he declared, right before a fish burst from the tree line. A tuna, to be exact, one that floated through the air in a brief moment of confusion that the leaves it had been swimming through had ended, before doing an about turn and darting back into the safety of the treeline.

“Was that a flying fish?! Wow past me was silly” the god declared, giggling with delight at the nonsense (much to the elves confusion) before thrusting a pointing finger dramatically forwards “Now into the forest with you all! Adventure awaits!”

The elves hesitantly entered the woods, and found their iris widening greatly to take in the low light far better than any human could, while their strong limber forms picked their way through the gaps between trees with supple sturdy grace.

It was as if they were made for this.

It was, of course, the other way around, or so Jeon assumed as he admired his own work for the first time, watching an octopus grappling from branch to branch as it chased after a minnow, or catching a glimpse of a deer made of root and branch that blended in so well with the other foliage none but he saw it.

The elves meanwhile, after they got over the simple awe of all the life around them, had more base desires than sightseeing.

Namly food.

“My god, can we eat those?” one asked, pointing at some bright and colorful mushrooms growing on a rotting log.

“Well there’s only one way to find out!” Jeon declared, “and that is to first give it a sniff, then you first take a little bit of it and put it on your elbow and wait to see if you get a rash, and then put some on a finger and do the same. Then you do that with your tongue for the same again. Then you take a liiiitle bit in your mouth. Then finally you eat a little bit and see if you get sick and then, only then, do you actually try eating a lot of it”

There was silence from the elves after this sudden technical explanation, which after it dragged on for a bit too long the god said “What? Did you expect me to say ’eat it and see if you die’ or something? Sillies, exploring new places is what I do, and knowing how to survive out in the wild without any prior knowledge is a key part of that!”

“Could you not do that now?” one asked “as a god, you would not die even if it was not safe”

“Yeah, sure, but then you wouldn't learn how to do it and then where would you be after I leave?”

“You're going to leave?”

“At some point. Gonna go see all there is to see once you're all settled and stuff” he replied, before moving past that and commanding “Now get to taste testing all the things, we don't have all day!”

And that they did, long slender arms picking fruits from the vine, berries for the bush, roots from the soil, mushrooms from the rot, prawns from hiding spots and fish from the air and testing them all out as their god had instructed.

It was a pretty slow process but it did work to ensure there were no casualties.

Well almost.

The god found himself standing over the body of one sorry sod who had gotten impatient, skipped steps in the procedure and poisoned himself to death with a berry as a result.

“Poor guy, should have listened…” the god sighed while shaking his head, feeling a little bad about this before looking up, squinting and saying “hey wait a second” when he saw an identical figure to the dead elf standing above the corpse.

“Hey, hey you, is that your twin or something?” the god asked, pointing at the figure to which both the identical elf and one right behind him replied “me?”

“No not you back there this guy, the one standing right above the body” he clarified

“Me?” said another crouching to the side of the corpse

“No no here” the god waved a finger and caused a glowing arrow right above the twin

“I, my god, there is no one there?” his shoulder throne informed him

“Yes there is” Jeon said, to which the twin concurred “Yes I am!”

The others looked very confused.

“... maybe it's a god thing” Jeon guessed, watching as the twin tried to get the attention of another elf, getting more angry that he wasn't being heard and then finally ended up phasing right through the other elf when he tried to hit them for ignoring him “yeah, definitely a god thing” he added, before glancing around and, now knowing what he was looking for, seeing a whole lot of other things just like the dead elf, mostly consisting of stuff the elves had eaten. There was in fact a whole world invisible to the mortal eye full of plants and animals and even rocks just casually phasing through solid matter and all looking as bemused as the god currently felt, which was quite strange.

“Well that’s weird. I guess ghosts exist?” he said to himself, before declaring that fact “neat!”

Unfortunately any deeper investigation of this would have to wait, as the scent of death, or more specifically the blood vomited up by the poor elf before he died, had drawn in those that fed on life.

Creeping through the undergrowth came wolves, but not normal wolves no, these ones had bright green glowing eyes and coats of foliage that had allowed them to go undetected to all but the god.

“Careful, predators!” Jeon shouted, pointing towards the plant beasts and cluing the mortals in on the danger. They all turned to look where he was pointing as the wolves, seeing they had been detected, rose up and began circling and growling menacingly, trying to spook the tall things into running so they could single out a victim from the crowd.

“Nobody panic! Just stick together! There’s more of you than there are of them!” the god declared to the subset of elves currently in danger, trying to ensure that was no rout as they huddled together on instinct

“Won’t you protect us god?” an elf begged, to which the still mounted on another’s sholder’s Jeon shook his head and replied “No, you need to be able to do that yourselves.”

“But how, they have sharp teeth and we do not” another cried out as a wolf darted forwards and bit the air intimidatingly.

“You have hands, gods… my gift to people! Now use them! Pick stuff up and toss it at the wolves you apes!” the god demanded, and the elves, after a moment of hesitation, obeyed, grasping whatever they could find.

A few moments later the wooden wolves were fleeing in a confused panic while being pelted with rocks, dirt, sticks, leftover food, and anything else the elves could get their hands on.

The elves rejoiced, but the god just shook his head “Yeesh, you people don't know the first thing about how to survive do you huh?” before cracking his knuckles “but that’s fine, my little birdies, because Jeon’s going to teach you all the secrets of survival for this very nasty world”

“What’s a bird?” one asked, having never seen one of those in the god’s flying fish filled forest

The god pursed his lips and then sighed. This was going to take a while.




Time passed, and through teaching and learning by experience the elves adapted to their new forest home. They sharpened sticks into spears using wolf fangs, made bags and clothes out of bark and leaves and crafted nice treetop meditation spots where they could be safe from ground based danger while they rested.

As they adapted and multiplied the god came and went, Jeon traveling around and finding other elves that had been caught up in his tree expansion and teaching them too, while also plumbing the depths of his own creation and unveiling every secret it held, though he kept them all to himself so the elves could make their own discoveries.

Eventually he would grow bored of this and set out to see the rest of the world once more, but for the time being the woods were an adventure well worth exploring.





The grand wrym with pale splotches that decorated its scales of deepest blue like stars in the sky was not lost. No, not at all. The [boundless explorer] was simply doing what he did best, which was go where no one had ever dreamed of going before. Of course, this time, he may have gone just a touuuuuch too far to somewhere he had no way of getting back on his own, let alone being resuced.

Piercing the veil between universes and then going in near blind had perhaps not been the wisest move in hindsight, and though the view might be wonderful (swirling masses of color, writhing with potential and power surrounded the wrym as far as the eye could see) it did lack somewhat in things like: food, water, companionship and, well sanity.

Drifting here in the void, the wrym had long since expended all his supplies, but fortunately his [greater resistance: starvation] and [greater resistance: dehydration] perks were keeping him going, though only with enough energy to just barely turn the page of a book. The wyrm had a fair few of those, all his favorite kind, and the kind that had inspired him to be who he was today: tales of adventure. They were the kind of stories he could never get tired of, which was a good thing indeed, because he had lost count of how many times he had read them over and over and over and over again while drifting here in the void, the words, ideas and tropes all melding into his mind with each repetition.

Then, it came, salvation, heralded on the cosmic wind.

“I am Anath Homura! Come forth to me, and become the cosmic cultivators and architects of a new realm! Join my pantheon, and become Divine! Shape the sturdy land, shift the singing sea, sculpt the soaring sky, rewrite reality in accordance with your visions!”

The wyrm stirred, eyes painstakingly turning away from the pages and towards the source of the sound. With that first and only fixed point, everything suddenly, briefly, made sense. Distance was nothing, not even a concept, in this place. All he needed to do was reach out with a thought and a wisp of power and he could be where the voice had come from.

Yet as he did, he felt a barrier, an insignificant thing really, a wisp of a field that kept what existed separate from what did not and yet, and yet, it was still far too much for the withering wyrm.

“Ah, curse, this… this… this tease!” he spoke with cracked lips “My mind is willing but my body, oh my body, i cant, it wont…” the wyrm despaired, curling in on itself in misery.

But then came a thought. And idea “if this body is dead and gone, why not just burn it for power? Yes. Yes! Oh it will cost so much but, ah, what is that compared to this sad bitter end” the wyrm said, before it coiled in on itself yet further, not to despair, but to consume. Like an ouroboros it devoured it’s own body for power and then pushed what little remained through the barrier and into the new world.




Then he opened his eyes, and though he was no longer a wyrm, he lived nonetheless

“AHAHAHAHA I AM A GENIUS!” he declared triumphantly, arms pumped up in the air. Or up in the void.

Then he looked down and saw the world, the only world, far far below him, yet also rapidly approaching.

“Oh No!” the new thing cried out, chestnut skinned limbs flailing as he plummeted towards the ground without a wyrm’s majestic grace.

“[Featherfall]! [Defy Gravity]! Damn it, why isn't it working!” He cried out as the powers of old failed to even manifest. Then he hit the atmosphere screaming and burned, burned, burned and his worldly possessions that he had spent so much power taking with him burning too. Fire consumed him and then, it ended.

For a moment he thought himself dead, and then he looked down and saw the same world below, still approaching, but slower now as terminal velocity took hold and the air softened his fall. Somewhat. Hitting the dirt was still going to hurt.

“What. how. Oooooooooh. ‘Join my pantheon, and become Divine’ of course, of course. Guess there was no vetting or application process then huh. Just stringent into the job? Well. if I’m divine then i should be able toooo” the new god put his hands together and focused for a moment, then cast them out and grasped onto the handrail of his new bright red canvased glider.

Then the screaming began again, but not of fear but of joy as the god claimed control of his fall and turned into a ferociously fast glide, the explorer rushing over the new land at terrible speeds. Blasting over the path of a butterfly, beneath that of a floating ship and across a marsh of blood till at least he slowed enough to come into a landing atop the tallest peak of a chain of mountains running from pole to equator.

The glider came in for a landing, flipped up at the last moment and two cat-like paws hit the surface of this new land for the first time. Then a second later a spiked end of a pole struck into the earth, and a flag unfurled at the top of the world.

“I calm this land in the name of… uh… where was I from again?” the alien invader asked himself, staring up at a set of colors on cloth he no longer knew the meaning of “Weeeeeelllllll shoot. Um. Oh! I know!” he said, before clearing his throat, and trying again “I claim this land in the name of Jeon Du Termas!” raising and replanting the flag that had become emblazoned with his own name, written in electrical blue cursive on a light pink background.

Jeon stood around for a few moments, feeling mighty proud of himself, and then rapidly got bored. “Eh, it’s not the same when there aren't some baffled natives around” he complained.

Then he looked down and realized that that was probably for the best.

“Ah so that is why it was feeling a bit cold down there. woops”

As funny as it would be to meet a local or other god in the nude, his new body made that a pretty embarrassing prospect , and so a nice pair of shorts, a waistcoat, and some fluttery flowing garbs for the arms and butt were in order. Throw in some glittering jewels here and there and he was the picture of princely finery.

“There we go. Nice and presentable. Oh and one last thing” he said after his makeover, before adding a nice curved rapier to his hip. Just because he was a god didn't mean he shouldn't be armed after all. “Dangerous world out there after all. Probably. Maybe. Better be, won't be exciting if its not”

All suited up, he put two scaled fingers to his lips and whistled, causing his glider to get picked up by a gust of wind and blown back to him. The god leapt, snatched the bar of it again, and then was off, swooping across the world once more to see what there was to see.





The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,135 (+2)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (258/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (225/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(153/100)
Rika: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (19/50)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth


”Me and Peach had a big brawl which, you know, obviously I won. Ain’t nobody but that pesky plumber who can get the best of me, and I’ll get him one day, that's for sure!” Bowser gloated in response to Sakura asking them about how their practice bouts had gone, before half bobbing his head to the side and adding ”But hey, Peach’s come a pretty long way, mind. Even managed to leave a scratch or two which is honestly pretty impressive”

”I’d say it was a touch more than a scratch” Kamek said, remembering the not insubstantial chuck of scales she’d seen blasted out of her king’s chest before he got patched up ”As for me and the young master, well, we had something of a minion battle rather than fight ourselves and I suppose I technically won, however that’s hardly fair to say when unlike the young master I cant run out of troops. It all ended up as something of an endless survival game for Mimi and Dazzle rather than a straight up fight, and I think they did rather well, all things told”

”Oh, and I also worked out how to do this while we were at it” she added, conjuring a shadow clone of Rika for a brief moment which did a dramatic combat pose, before giving a blank faced wave as it dematerialised, all in the span of a few seconds ”Rather neat, yes?

A only a little bit later an announcement blared through the halls, informing them all that the railway mission had been successful, which put something of a damper on Jr’s plan to have lunch before setting out, as did Nadia’s challenging the others to a race and then proceeding to splatter herself on the ground several floors down, the watching of which was at first harrowing and then appetite killing.

“Are you ok down there Ms?!” Rika called down to the cat girl, and then sighed with relief as she started to pull herself together down there. Then she glanced to the side as a propeller started whirring and Jr began to take to the skies to chase her down and win the race.

“Oh no you don’t! Your not leaving me behind this time!” Rika shouted as she hopped up, grabbing the size of the car with the jaw of her gauntlet, and then ,using the hull blades for extra leverage, hauled herself up and into the car “So scoot over”

As the prince complained the shipgirl sat herself bedie him and then reached a hand down and out to Omori and asked him “Wanna come with?”

However which way they got there, the blue team all found their way to the meeting chamber and got the sit-rep, and then headed on down to the vehicle bay, though not before Jr held everyone up by detouring to get a BLT sandwich on the way there (he got over Nadia’s accident pretty quickly).

Once there they went past their still busted airship, and the princess had to have a giggle at what everyone else had been saddled with instead of it, namly dinky wooden rowboats.

”Now now young master, that’s hardly becoming of a prince” Kamek tutted, but even she had to cover her mouth and suppress a laugh when Bowser stepped into the boat… and it promptly slowly sank with him onboard. Amusement quickly turned to panic however when the king proceeded to also sink like a brick to the bottom of the dock and proved unable to just swim back up to the surface.

Fortunately, after a muffled ringing of a bell the king reemerged in his Meowser form, claw climbing up the side of the dock and then violently shaking off all the water like a dog, much to anyone nearby’s displeasure.

”Bleh, sire really!” Kamek complained, while Rika moaned about her new sundress getting all wet for the second time today.

”Yeah yeah, complain all you want, but you’ve got way less to moan about than me, coz I’m stuck” Bowser retorted, understandably a bit miffed at the prospect of being left behind after all he’d done for the cause.

”Now now sire, don't give up so soon, I’ll just have my Toadies carry you” Kamek said after she’d dried herself off, before waving her wand and summoning the stocky hooded and propeller hatted creatures with which to hoist the king up.

”Yeah and what if they drop me, huh? I’ll just sink like a stone. I need something waaaay more resilient before I even think of going out there” the king replied, not wanting to trust his life to the grips of those floaty wee henchmen

“Oh Oh, I can help with this!” Rika announced before scrunching up her fists and eyes and holding her gauntlets in close to her chest while focusing, only to suddenly rise them up with a cry of pain as she summoned Pacific Princess’s white whale at the expense of her vitality, the ship girl bending over, panting and bleeding from her nose as the great beast filled up much of the docks.

”Wow hey I’ve got you” Bowser said as he carefully caught the shipgirl by the shoulder before she just completely collapsed ”you didn’t need to do that you know”

“What not, it's fine, it's fine!” she replied while appreciatively leaning on the big guy for support before adding “Besides, Kamek and Blazermate can just fix me up right?” which was something the mage was already in the process of setting up white mage clones to start doing.

A little bit later she was all patched up and they were ready to go. Kamek and Jr hovered above the group as usual, though the prince did take the time to send out his Popplio, Dazzle, to go for a swim, the sealion happily leaping to and fro among the boat riders, eager to set out into the water unknown.

Despite his playful antics, the pokemon was out and about mainly to act as an escort, a task he was joined in by Rika (who as a shipgirl was of course entirely suited to keeping everyone safe as she scooted across the waves) and the unlikely pairing of her great white whale and Bowser, who was riding just behind its array of cannons was, and who was primed and ready to add his own firepower to the great sea beast's own. Woe betide anyone who got on the wrong end of that barrage.

With them all set, all that was needed was for everyone else to get ship shaped and then they’d all head out on their watery adventure to Twilight town. With it being a quick scoot along the coast after all, so what could possibly go wrong in that short a distance?


Deep Dark Secrets


“I cannot accept this gift in good faith, especially when your fear of the end is based purely on speculation” Xavior, sitting upon his (re-redecorated) throne in his courtroom, said to the bejeweled merchant who had come to try and bargain for salvation.

“But, my god, surely the signs of the end times could not be more clear! The sky bleeds a red that does not fade, and you yourself have mentioned that the nodes grow hot. What else could these mean!” The merchant retorted, words joined by mutters of agreement from the line of awaiting supplicants.

“I have sent messengers to Benea seeking answers. Till they return and enlighten us to the truth I will brook no more discussion of whether or not the Trigger event is upon us, and that is final” The god decreed, and then raise a hand to silence the words of those that dissent “Enough. All of those here regarding the trigger event, step aside and be patient for the return of the messengers”

God sighed internally as his command was obeyed and caused a frightening number of those waiting to speak with him to step to the side. In the process they formed a worryingly large group who immediately launched into debate over the subject. As they moved off the next in line stepped forwards and was announced

“Next is…” there was a pause as the priest in charge of managing the queue had to skip down their list several times to get to the next supplicant still in line, “miss Jasmin, here on behalf of Master Forman Derik”

As instructed, the well dressed woman who’s garb made little effort to hide her calloused hands and the muscles of a miner framing her form, stepped forwards beneath their cloth, stepped forwards and bowed before Xavior “My god. We have made the most peculiar discovery. These slabs” she beckoned a pair of assistants forwards holding two large stone tablets “where found by one of the miners deep deep beneath the ground. I have not come to ask for anything in turn, you have already done so much for my family and my dear Derik, and so simply offer these due to your interest in anything that might predate the world of the creator”

The fact that something might have survived the end of the old world caused a great stir, particularly in those who had come to attempt to barter for survival at the end of this one.

“You are sure these do not have an origin from this cycle of the crucible? A trick of some charlatan, or another god perhaps?” Xavior said, trying to not get his or anyone else’s hopes up.

“I cannot say, all I know is that it is written in a language no one i have contacted to look at them has been able to identify” Jasmin said as the tablets where presented to the god and he could see that, just as she had said, they were written in a writing system not born from this cycle.

Or that is what he thought at first. Peering closer it seemed to be similar to Benea’s but, for some reason, it seemed… hazy, or blurred would be how he would best describe it, the words having been obscured by some malignant curse.

“Strange. And intriguing. Hmmm” the god thought for a moment, and then snapped his fingers, before reaching into the breast pocket on the suit he had decided to wear today and retrieving a newly created monocle. This he set over on eye, holding it in place with his eyebrow as he examined the freshly revealed information.



He read the first silently, and then upon reaching the second his eyes suddenly widened and he lost his grip on the onical, which went bouncing across the floor, clinking sound echoing through the hush of the room.

“My god? Are you alright” the priest who caught and retrieved the monocle quietly asked, concerned by the hidden look of fear he saw as he stepped in close to return the reading implement. Out of curiosity he glanced through the lens of the monocle himself, yet while the information he saw was certainly revelatory, he saw no reason for his god’s fearful reaction.

“Yes. Yes I am quite fine” the god lied, taking the lens and placing it back where it belonged, steeling himself as he once more read the word that had caused a burst of primal fear upon simply witnessing it:

Koulemuus

He did not know why he felt that way, nor why the priest had had no such reaction, but if the presence of Trine of whom all humans where children did not confirm the age of the tablet, then whatever curse or rule had caused him to feel terror at the name of that person or weapon certainly did.

“You are correct in your assessment, miss Jasmin, this is older than this cycle, perhaps older than all cycles, and it is of great interest to me. You will do all you can to find if any more of these lay buried beneath the earth” the god commanded, before reassuring her that “I will, of course, fund and reward these efforts with my own wealth and power”

Jasmin bowed graciously, quietly overjoyed at how profitable this little trip had been, already dreaming at the advancements in mining they could make with divine backing. She’d have further reasons for joy as soon as she left the room from the group who had been denied an audience with Xavor. For though the god was interested in the content’s of the documents, those who sought to survive the end of the world saw in the slab’s mere existence hope they could take their survival into their own hands.

If these slabs could survive the end by being deep down in the earth, then surely they could too? Thus the search for secrets gained a second purpose, to dig deep and then build shelters for the wealthy to hunker down within in-order to survive the apocalypse.





The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,008 (+2)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (256/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (223/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(151/100)
Rika: Level 5 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (17/50)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth


Jr grumbled as his suggestion that they bailed didn’t get responded to right away and so after only about a half dozen drops plopped down on his head he had had enough of being rained on. The boy prince hopped out of his car and then proceeded to pick it up, flipping it upside down in order to hold it above his head and use it as an umbrella.

”Blech, fine, get wet all you want, see if I care!” he complained from beneath his shield.

”Aw come on, its not that bad” Rika replied cheerfully, although she quickly changed her tune when her new sundress started getting wet and it, unlike the pirate-y or swimsuits-y clothes she’d had on, did not respond well to the drenching.

”Oh ok ew that is not fun” she complained as she raised her gauntlets over her head to block the rain, though the way they did not slot together and instead left a gap meant she got water dripped on the head and shoulders quite a bit.

Thus both she joined Jr and Omori in hurrying over to the elevator, and being thankful that it both sped its way down and had a rain shield that closed up above them to block out the downpour.

Once at the bottom there was a twining of farewells and greetings, starting with the hat wearing kid running off on her own adventure/quest to gather up all her ship’s fuel.

”Bye! Have fun and stay safe whatever your name is!” Rika called after her, while Jr just shrugged, somewhat indifferent to her departure. They hadn’t exactly been close despite Jr’s perhaps miss guided attempts to change that.

As for the greeting, well, here was Pit who they’d met once at the meeting and Jr vaguely knew from smash. Unlike with his dad there hadn’t been any kind of world warping adventure attached to the tournament he’d been in, and as there was a difference between competing with/against someone and going through an actual crisis side by side with them, his familiarity with the angel was a fair bit lesser than Bowsers.

”Sup Pit” Jr greeted him simply, while Rika gave him a little hand wave and a nod in agreement to how good the view was as she said ”Yeah it really was, I didn’t know there was so much stuff in the world!” before thinking for a moment and adding ”Oh and I’m Rika, nice to meet you. I like your pretty wings”

The lack of any kind of city wide alert or moogle showing up ment they still had time to kill, something Omori noted and took Pit up on his offer about tapping into his knowledge of smash city to ask if there was anywhere else they could spend time.

”Like somewhere to eat? All that fighting and training means has left me hungry” Jr said, despite the fact that he’d been passive through most of it. Rika nodded enthusiastically at the idea, having contrastingly put lots of effort in over the last little while that had worked up a fair bit of an appetite.




Someone who was way ahead of them on the whole food front was Bowser. The king, having been denied a throw down by the spotlight hogging Dante, had gone and gotten a second serving of shrimp which he was sitting on the stairs and munching through like popcorn while watching Dante throw down with the two intruders. His enthusiasm was somewhere between the noisy Sakura and the cool Karin, giving the odd call of encouragement, but mostly focusing on munching and watching.

Kamek, once she had seen to the wounded (who seemed to have come off rather lightly considering the damage being thrown around and giving a pretty clear indication that the pair had pulled their punches) had settled down next to her king alongside some of those same said wounded who where fit enough to sit and watch. Together they made up something of a little spectator gallery joining in Sakura’s cheering, especially from those that had lost to the intruders and who had a personal stake in seeing them get their comeuppance.

Get it they did, Dante and her endless bag of tricks not quite wiping the floor with them, but certainly showing herself to be head and shoulders above the couple when it came to competence and sheer style. The ending of the fight was met with cheers and applause from the miscellaneous onlookers.

”Well done Dante, and thank you two for not hurting anyone too badly while under the influence of Galeem” Kamek called down, adding just a little bit of positive spin to Guile’s sour faced take on the situation

”Eh you two were lucky Dante jumped in before I got in the ring, else you’d have seen what a real trouncing looked like. I’m the one who freed her after all” Bowser added, leaving out just oh so many details of that little confrontation in the name of being his boastful self as he and Kamek followed Geralt’s beckoning for them to wander down to join the reforming Blue team group.

”As for getting back in the action, well, I for one am appreciating all the downtime I can get before we go back to the grindstone. It's not like we really have a time pressure on us or anything, what with Galeem being passive and the master hand being reactionary in its methods of opposing us, so plenty of rest and preparation can only help our cause” Kamek replied to the Witcher’s notion about wanting to get back out there.

Bowser meanwhile had the opposite opinion ”Nah I get ya, it’s well past time we got back out there and started smashing shmucks into dust again. Can’t let that big flappy glowball get comfy thinking we ain't coming for its neck…? head…? orb! Yeah that! Plus there was that whole city that was in trouble or something right? I’m guessing you here types are chomping at the bit to go save that place.”
Mercenary mission: Last Resort


Just about eyesight of smash city, across the Eryth Sea, stood a power plant charged by a singular massive spinning turbine. To those in charge of the city, it was an eyesoar. Not because of anything to do with the structure itself however mind, wonderful renewable energy source that it was, but because of the brutish locusts (derisively known as Grubs by their natural enemies, the Gears) who called it home. Attempts at friendly contact had been met with gunfire, and subsequent relations had only deteriorated thanks to a raid on one of the merchant caravans winding its way over too spiral mountain to exchange fish for crops.

After Mewtwo had set the blue team to work training, and discreetly oversee their matches via the spectator system, it had instead decided that it was high time someone cleaned up the local trash. That they seemed to be sitting on quite the stockpile of weapons, ammo and military vehicles would be a (significant) side benefit of making the region safer and fully under the control of the seeker’s forces.



The first challenge to taking the base would be the beach and the ruined wall that separated it from the more modern power station propper. Here, small gangs of locust grunts patrolled across sand and stone, or lounged on lazy lookout duty atop the walls, the fact that no one had dared bother them in forever meant they were pretty lax in the whole deal.

That was right up until a comically large cartoon bomb bounced down into the sand next to a patrol of grubs. They had but a moment to look at it in confusion before it detonated, central explosion vaporizing one while a series of secondary explosions lashed out in a cross shape from the central one, pulping a few more unfortunate grubs in the process and posthumously teaching them about the importance of spacing.

The surviving locusts scrambled for cover that could not save them from the bombardment dropping from the sky, grub after grub being blown to bits by the air dropped bombs. Their leader, Captain Jermad, took cover within the powerplant itself, but swiftly realized that he was under in no danger and stepped out onto the platform behind the windmill to get a look at what was attacking them. Gazing to the sky, squinting into the morning light till he spotted the source of their problem.

Two shapes, floating improbably in the air, one simply hovering there, menacingly, with its arm outstretched to its side towards the other one. This second seemed to be the source of the steady rain of black bombs pelting his front line. But, as he had noticed, they were not hitting his main base.

The monster of a man glanced down at the vehicle and ordnance stores of the compound and understood very well why this was, snarling “Greed” to himself before pointing down at some of his reserves and then up at the hovering figures.

Up above Mewtwo narrowed its eyes as it spotted movement within the compound in response to its telekinetically held helper Bomberman’s shower of explosives. This had been effective enough as an opening, it decided, but now was time to activate stage two before their enemy had time to recover, something it did with a thought.

As an engine roared to life along the coast, Jermad’s response came into view, a pair of Reaver squids taking flight, each carrying a pair of grubs on their backs, one pilot as a pilot and one as an assistant gunner.

The pokemon made a sound of minor inconvenience at this, and began evasive actions, bomberman in tow, as the assistant gunners opened up on them with their pistols… only for one to immediately sprout an arrow from the neck.

From within her sneakily taken watchtower sat upon the hill overlooking the beach the goblin warlord and ace archer Hollythorn drew another arrow from her quiver to as her ranger strikers finished off the last of the grubs who had been stationed within. She wasn’t technically part of the 4 hero band task with this mission, but the reason she was here was, and was also presently recklessly racing headfirst towards danger, if the roaring engine sound barreling towards the base was any indication.

The grubs on the beach, the few that remained, pulled themselves together after the bombing stopped just in time to be targets for the whirling miniguns of Duace as the hotrod came roaring down the beach, peddle held to the metal by one Eddie Rigs, hero and liberator of the Brütal Land.

Bullets riddled the defenders as their own pinged haplessly off the souped up car, and by the time it did a sharp turn and powerslide up to park beside the wall it was kicking up their dust along with the wave of sand it showered down onto the battlements like a smokescreen. Along with this wave came an armored and crowned figure who leapt high into the air, wall jumped off the wall for more height and then floated back towards it for a moment before finally then dropping down onto one of the grubs.

”Hi I’m Daisy!“ the eponymous princess introduced herself as she smashed a frying pan down on his head with a distinctive clong! before bringing up the quad barrel pistol she held in her other one and haphazardly blasting it down the length of the battlements, filling the space and enemies in it with shotgun shrapnel.

Grubs fell as she tossed the empty weapon at the closest survivor’s noggin before she rushed through the ash to deliver an unsportswomanly steel toe capped kick to his groin. As the grub doubled over in pain Daisy finished up by smashing him over the head with the frying pan. This unfortunately bent the poor pan all out of shape, so she hurled it at another locust and was, at that point, unfortunately all out of weapons.

It was thus a good moment for a winged shape to rise up to join her, Eddie flying with demonic wings to deliver a two handed battle axe blow to the grub that was raising a weapon to shoot the princess, while an arrow sprouted from the eye socket of another who was doing the same.

Princess daisy-bombed her own target off the wall (a move that came complete with a shower of her flowery namesake) and then waved up to the goblin appreciatively for the assist. In response Hollythorn rolled her eyes and then focused back on the air battle, where Mewtwo was doing its best to evade the remaining squid like Reaver, the other having been left blind by the death of its two riders at the goblin’s hands.

This second one was proving trickier, knowing it had to be evasive or die; it was sacrificing its own ability to aim to stay alive, spraying bullets out that were of little threat but forced its own target to keep moving.

I tire of this. Give me a moment that target thought too bomberman, before tossing the explosive slinger skywards and flying right at the reaver, raising a blue bubble shield around it that deflected the shots and then rammed into the beast’s head. A glance from the mon that met the pilot’s eyes disabled the creature’s ability to pull the trigger a moment before the bubble burst like shrapnel from the impact.

The mon took the moment he had given himself to palm strike the head of the beast, purple psychic energy flaring which he drove directly into its brain, pulping it to mush.

Then he kicked off the now plummeting and disintegrating beast, flew at lighting speed and snatched Bomberman out of the air right before the hero met a watery grave and then finally swooped towards the beach to link up with the princess and the roadie at their now cleared wall.

The base proper awaited.



Mewtwo dropped Bomberman off at the beach and then hovered up to see how the two were doing, which turned out to be hiding behind their captured wall’s battlements as bullets rained down.

“Projectile spammers huh? Real buncha cheap jerks” Daisy said to him as the mon ducked down to join them, glancing at an arrow embedded in the wall that had a bit of paper with “take cover you idiots” on it.

Quite the mon thought back, its eyes briefly skimming over a pile of replacement weapons Daisy had acquired from crushing grub sprites, before it formed a bubble shield around itself and stood up to get a look at the situation. The hail wasn’t as intense as it seemed while it had been ducking for cover, the mon found. The grunts, hunkered down behind various corners and chest high walls across the base, were instead taking turns to ping off a few shots to keep the hero’s heads down while a squad of them moved towards the entrance of the base to flank them, both actions done under the command of their observing leader.

A thought and a resulting bomberman bomb took care of the little flanking threat right before they rounded the corner. The response to both this and, of course, Mewtwo standing up in the first place was an increase in fire power concentrated on him, a hail of bullets slowly cracking the shell of power as the sight of a juicy target immediately broke the grunt’s discipline. The mon smirked, standing there with its arms folded behind its back, as its allies got to move to a new position while it was the focus. A moment later fire opened up a little ways away along the wall on either side of the mon as Eddie and Daisy used spirit spawned weapons to return fire.

Unfortunately they were not exactly expert shooters with adult rifles and their opponent was no fool, having held back troops who at his command immediately popped out of cover and opened up on the other two, driving them to hunker back down again.

Mewtwo ignored a cry of “Uuuurgh, so cheap!” from Daisy while partially agreeing with Eddie’s shouting of “We need to get in there and wreck these dudes face to face!”

I suppose I will resolve this myself then’ the mon thought to them, before dodging to the side with a twirling motion while dropping his bubble, before vanishing in a flurry of sparkles. A moment later one of the grunts was hurled out of cover and into a fiend’s line of fire. Then from an entirely different position a ball of purple energy soared out, hammering another grub in the back. Suddenly finding themselves flanked by the fast moving mon the locusts reacted in a barely controlled panic as their leader shouted for order (and then promptly retreated inside to avoid being taken down himself by the teleporting terror himself)

Daisy took this moment to take a peek back up over her cover and then once she did not lose her head, popped two locust rifles on the battlements and just pulled the trigger down, spraying uncontrolled amounts of fire in the general direction of some grubs while giggling with girlishly manic laughter.

Eddie meanwhile strummed a few notes on his guitar and then leaped down as the Deuce came roaring around the corner under its own power in response, having picked up bomberman on its way there. He mounted up and hit the gas, sending the Deuce slamming forwards into a locust position while Bomberman tossed his signature explosives out the back at those that avoided being splattered.

If that had been the limit of the locust’s power, it would have been over, especially once Hollythorn repositioned, got an angle on the inner compound, and started steadily picking off grunts one by one. Unfortunately, Jermad had one last round of reserves saved up which he now sent into the fray.

Along with them came the rain, slinging down from the darkening sky.

A barb toothed preacher waded into the battle, screaming holy commands at the grubs to rise and fight, demands that were met with revitalization that sealed their wounds and even raising them from near death states.

“Oh come on!” Daisy yelled as she tossed her spent weapons (much of whome’s ammunition usage had been rendered meaningless) away and pulled more from her pile, only to come under suppressing fire again from the revitalized Grubs.

“Hey Holly! Can you do something about that!” the princess called up to her friend as bullets pinged of the stone wall behind her. Unfortunately the goblin was presently in the midst of fleeing from adorable drill faced creatures called diggles which were made a bit less cute first by the locust augmentations covering their eyes and second by the fact that they had used those strange beaks to burst out of the solid rock Hollythorn had been stood on, and the warlord had no interest in finding out what they did to her green flesh.

Down below Deuce skidded to the side, splashing up rainwater as Eddie pulled a U-turn and aimed to simply run down the preacher and his troops, only for canonfire to sound to the left of the car and a blast to slam into one of its back wheels, sending the care careening and crashing into a nearby building while the basted wheel spun away in the opposite direction.

As Bomberman and Eddie pulled themselves from the crashed vehicle as the source of the cannon fire rushed towards them, the rampaging cybereticly enhanced moon bear storming towards them to take them down with tooth and claw while its cannon reloaded itself.

Further back Jermad had returned from summoning his troops from the reserve, a fresh waves of grunts heading for the front lines on either side of him while the captain himself was flanked by two Theron Guards armed with strange bow like guns as retook his windmill observation spot.

These weapons his guards raised and began “charging” up (a yellow glow building at the front of the gun) when Mewtwo appeared and began laying waste to the grunt wave. A volleyball shaped and sized orb of shadow slamming into one was its opening, before the mon teleported out into the open next to another pair running next to the first. To one it delivered a dark blast with a palm thrust that ripped its insides to shreds, and the other it slammed with its tail, the bulb at the end acting like the head of a flail as it delivered a blow that snapped its neck.

Then the mon physically crushing both felled grunt’s spirits, levitating the resulting guns the moments they formed and opening fire with all three while using its blue barrier to block retaliation from the other panicked grunts as it mowed them down with cold and brutal efficiency.

At least until one of the bow wielding guard’s added their own shot to the mix, the torque rifle firing its rpg shaped bolt with intense speed, which slammed into and then right through its bubble barrier. A split second decision to start dodging this shot when he heard it go off saved the mon from also being penetrated by the missile, and instead it only exploded inside the barrier and behind the mon, knocking it off of its feet and face first to the ground.

The mon launched to the side, psychically pulling its fallen form out of the way of the second shot, before blinking into the air and then blasting forwards head first towards the captain and his 2 guards, only to have to swerve out of the way when a third cut in with an oversized axe. It then parried Mewtwo’s weeping tail swing with the flat of the axe head, and finally lashed out with an electrically charged fist, the Boltmon who the locusts had found plugged into the heart of the generator willing to do whatever it took to protect its new master.

Down below Eddie did almost the exact same move to spare Bomberman from death by cyberbear, using his own massive battle axe side on as a shield to catch the biting jaws of the rampaging cyborg.

“Gahhh, your breath stinks! Get lost fur ball!” he shouted at it, before trying to sock it in the jaw. Unfortunately, it was A: a bear and B: had a metal lower jaw which just ment the roadie mostly succeeded in hurting his own fist, pulling it back and shaking it with an “ah-cha-cha-cha!” before stumbling back as the bear tried to wail on him again with another paw strike. This one caught him on the arm, sending the metal legend stumbling right as a bomb was slid between his legs.

“Uh oh” he panicked as he saw it and just how low the fuse was, raising both arms and closing his eyes to try and protect himself as it went off. There was a wumf of flame and a pained yowling from the cyber-bear as it was blasted, but there came no fiery incineration for Eddie, who instead opened his eyes to see a cross of scorch marks on either side where the X shaped explosion had blasted past him.

The cyber-bear itself lay crumpled in a heap, struggling to rise on sparking limbs. Unfortunately, as the roadie turned and gave bomberman a thumbs up and a “nice one” the grub preacher arrived to undo their work, lacerating maw opening wide and letting out the beginning of screeching invigoration intended for the fallen warbeast… Only for it to get an arrow shot right down its throat.

The monster clutched at its neck and maw as it fell, much to the alarm of rank and file who were suddenly left medicless once more. Those that glanced up towards the source of the shot found the sight of a football gear clad princess merily goomba stopping the crap out of their trained diggles, bouncing from noggin to noggin with her studded football boots and leaving puffs of dust in her wake. Meanwhile the relieved goblin who had ended their spiritual leader was half way through notching about two dozen arrows into her bow all at once.

Those that looked to see what had killed the preacher, then, were the first to join it in falling as Hollythorn proved herself to be a one goblin archer volley as she lossed a rain of arrows which joined the actual rain showering down into the enemy ranks. Those that had ducked down behind chest high walls joined the first lot in death about a split second later as the arrows dropping from the sky ignored their traditional cover system and struck down right through their bald exposed scalps

Those that found cover under things tried to throw up one last show of resistance, only for Eddie to come charging in, powerslide on his knees over the rain slick concrete to get under their fire, the roadie shredding guitar so hard as he slid that the power cords literally melted their faces off.

“How do you like that!” he laughed, standing as the grubs fell, only to duck down again as more gunfire sounded.

This wasn’t directed at him however, and instead was coming from the remaining forces gathered around Jermad who were focusing on trying to survive the one mon army that was Mewtwo.

The perfect pokemon was soaring through the compound’s rooftops, gunfire chasing its tail as it circled the locust captain, looking for an opening. The boltmon down below mirrored his movements, placing himself between his boss and the pokemon, the digimon using its oversized ax to bat any and all shadowballs Mewtwo was tossing down out of the sky before they could strike down his boss. Said boss meanwhile was not cowering, but instead was wielding a long rifle to try and shoot down his opponent. He was joined in this by his troops who were hammering rifle fire and explosive bolts skywards, all convinced they only had to get lucky once and this would be over.

In reality they’d actually gotten lucky half a dozen times already, and though it was hiding it well, the mon was starting to feel the nicks and bruises that had been left on its legendary frame and was wondering how much more of this it could take.

Then a black ball pinged perfectly off the frame of the windmill and landed amidst a cluster of grunts before detonating in a fiery explosion. A cheery cry of “Goaaaal!” came from the sporty Daisy, before she lined up a kick and sent another one of bomber man’s bombs hurtling into the frey with perfect penalty shot precision. Grunts that moved to react to this got arrows from Hollythorn, while Eddie used his demonic wings to fly up to the raised platform the captain was commanding from.

The Boltmon turned to face him, batting away a bomb with his axe before charging the Roadie to meet him blade to blade, the muscular monster and man straining as each tried to push back the other’s weapon with their own.

Behind the clashing warriors the two bowgun armed guards suddenly swung their weapons to one side and unleashed their bolts at mewtwo as it descended from the sky, only for the mon, now unmolested by conventional bullets thanks to the ladies and bomberman's fire, to flick its wrist, sending both shots whimsically spinning up into the air under the power of confusion, before they were sent sailing right back at the guards, the bolts punching deep into their chests and then exploding, showering Jermad with their ashes.

Seemingly undeterred, the captain coolly raised his long rifle and definitely blasted away at the mon’s raised shield before dodge rolling to the side as the barrier slammed into where it had been. Dropping his rifle and drawing a pistol Jermad spun around to try and get a beed on the monster that had torn through his troops only for his arm, and his whole body, to freeze in place. Only his eye’s could turn and see the outstretched three digited hand grasping him with power’s beyond his comprehension.

His arm shook as he tried to fight it, only for the mon to suddenly whip him over its head, and then launching him with that momentum and more, slamming him into the back of boltmon.

The Frankensteinian monster stumbled, received an arrow to the knee and then an axe to the gut. The captain meanwhile hit the deck, grunted and then tried to push himself up off of it, only to find his death drifting towards him.

“This is not the end of-” he tried to threaten with his last words, but the perfect pokemon ignored him and simply calmly pointed down at him with a finger and engulfed the captain in a dark explosion that tore his body asunder.

The Locust’s captain was dead, his forces in disarray. All that remained was cleanup.

The still falling rain at least handled the ash part of that.



The Koopa Troop

wordcount: 1,528 (+3)
Bowser: Level 10 EXP: //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (254/100)
Bowser Jr: Level 9 EXP: ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// (221/90)
Kamek: Level 10 EXP: ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////(149/100)
Rika: Level 5 ////////////////////////////////////////////////// (15/50)
Location: Smash City Alcamoth


Jr took it back, whoever had made this spider leg elevator clearly had some excellent taste, or at the very least excellent taste when it came to music. They also had some pretty fancy engineering props based on how utterly smooth the ride was. He had some experience in that kind of thing after all, and knew that making a thing with legs not jostle the ever-living heck out of its rider was no mean feat, let alone making it feel like they were being lifted by wheels rather than legs.

”I wonder if we could get it to go and walk about instead, or if it's super specialized to wall climbing” he wondered as he took a closer look at the not at all safe to be around robot legs. You only had to be standing a bit too close to the side to be in the perfect position to get domed by a mechanical knee.

The boy prince, of course, did not let this distract him one bit.

While he inspected, Rika was content to just jam out to the music, eyes closed and with her head bobbing and torso shimmying to the beat. Her little jam session came to an end when she heard about the training idea, and she reopened her eyes just in time to see Nadia’s arm rocketing across the room, which she thought was pretty cool and said as much before taking up the offer for some more combat running vs a Nadia water clone.

”I guess I could do with more uh, one on one practice” Rika said, squaring up her guns and then, fortunately, thinking the better of it ”but maybe not with shooting in here… hmmmmm well, I do kinda need to learn how to use these better” she added as she extended her hull blades and did a few chopping motions ”yeah that’ll work. Punchy chop chop training here I go!”

Before she could step up to the plate however, Jr hovered over, deploying a massive wrecking ball from his clown car and announcing ”I’ve been wanting to try this out since I added it, so come here kitty clone, it's time to make a splash!”

”Uh, jr maybe practice something other than that so you don’t, well, hit one of the big legs?” Rika suggested, eyes going to and frew the massive unyielding underslung weapon and the exposed spider limbs that were all that was keeping them from plummeting to their doom.

”What? Nah it’ll be fine! I’ve got complete control” Jr insisted in a way that convinced no one.

”Of something you just added and have never used?” Rika said, putting words to that lack of confidence

”I… Well…”

”...”

”Ok fine, jeeze!” Jr relented after a brief little stare down and undeployed the wrecking ball. Now lacking for that to do, he thought for a bit and offered to be the one who acted as target practice for Miss Fortune, saying ”Hey, Nadia, how about you try and hit my car on the nose while I have it hovering about then instead?” and then tinkering with some controls to set the thing to a simplistic autopilot that made the car start to hover around ‘evasively’ in a manner very reminiscent of a shooting gallery target.

This let him chill and spend most of his time watching the others, both to get an impression of this new kid and seeing how Rika was doing. Said ship girl was running into the increasingly familiar problem of being out maneuvered, throwing big wild heavy swings at first that the nimble Nadia clone could slip around most of the time, and then punish the over committing abyssal.

Still, if Rika had the troops troop’s flaw of being slow but strong, she also shared their resilience, not just physically but spiritually, as she picked herself up again and again and threw herself back into training, something that started to pay dividends as she switched from just trying to win to trying out new things. The aforementioned hull blades, while they hadn’t much reach compared to her gauntlet punches, were quick, and using them Rika could react fast enough to block or punish the swift kitty when it came in to hit her after one of her own failed swings.

That she visibly improved even from just this impromptu training session indicated both a capacity for quick learning, and a complete lack of actual prior training, the ship girl having acted mostly on a mix of programmed instincts and trial by live fire learning up until this point.

The more of this she got, the better equipped she would be for when they headed out again into the world.




The adrenaline of fighting and/or the interesting in elevator entertainment available for watching made the rest of the trip up top go by quickly enough, and in what felt like no time at all the soundtrack came to an end and they had reached their destination.

Quite a chilly one too. Lacking any clothes to zip up Jr mainly hunkered down a bit in his clown car and turned up the radiator to fight off the cold. High altitude wasn't exactly a new or exciting thing for the prince who often flew about that high either on airships or in this very car, but he still had to admit, it was quite the nice view they were getting up top. He totally got why it wasn't exactly the hottest spot in the city however.

Rika, for her part, ended up doing a whole lot of running as she moved from vantage point to vantage point with childlike awe and glee at the sight of, well, just so many new places, which more than made up for the lack of insulation her sundress provided.

A barrage of questions about what everything was accompanied her energetic sightseeing, one that only ended when the rain started to sweep in to put a damper on their adventure.

”Urg, lame. Well, kinda done everything we can up here anyway and we haven’t even seen a single ghost, so let’s head back down yeah?” Jr suggested, not wanting to be out in the rain for any longer than he had too.




”Oh cool, a show to go along with my snack” Was Bowser’s reaction upon meandering over to see what all the commotion was about in the entrence hallway and finding a pair of strangers had beat the snot out of the door guards. Rather than go help he instead stuck another prawn in his maw and leaning on the stairway banister to spectate like a few other people where doing. The main difference between those worried people and him was of course that they were absolutely noncombatants, especially when compared to the decked out king, something anyone with a conscious or a brain might take issue with.

”uhhhh, sire? We, ah, really should be helping not watching” Kamek pointed out to her king as the pair of them looked down on the incident from just beyond the entryway to the Ark mall, within which they had been strolling till they heard sounds of the battle.

”Huh? Come on they ain't killing anyone what’s the big deal… Urgh alright fine” Bowser relented after being stared down by his advisor for a few moments and pointed a finger down at the intruders and roared ''Listen up you shmucks! You're gonna regret interrupting my snack time!” before dumping the rest of the shrimp into his maw all at once, crushing up the box and tossing it at a nearby bin.

Which he missed.

The king gave his failed throw a flat look, shrugged, looked away and stepped one foot up onto the banister in preparation to jump into the fight, only to glance back at the bin, sigh, step back down from it in order to stomp over to put his trash away properly.

”Let’s clear some space shall we” Kamek said while this was going on, pulling out her wand and summoning first a team of toadies, and then a set of clones of herself which she started to turn into white mages.

”These will be tending to the wounded, please don't interfere with their mission of, bleh, mercy” she called out to the fighters, as the toadies moved to pull the downed fighters well out of harm's way while his white mage clones set about stabilizing the worst of them. It wouldn't be getting them back into the fight, but it would prevent any deaths, be it from blood loss or being collateral damage.

As the magical constructs fanned out to perform their rescue mission, the Koopa King returned and attempted to pick up from where he had left

”Alright now your gonna regret messing with-” the turtle began to announce himself once again after doing his civil duty, stepping one foot onto the banister dramatically again as he did so, only for him to see Dante had arrived in order to steal the spotlight while he was busy picking up trash.

”Wha- hey- ah come on” he threw his hands up in exasperation upon being told to back off and then turned and stomped off muttering something about getting more shrimp instead. Kamek just shook her head at this and set about supervising her magical medical team while the action heated up down below.
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